Saturday, August 9, 2014

Gov. Jerry Brown denies parole for Manson family member Bruce Davis

Bruce
Davis, left, in December 1970, and right in 2013. Davis completed a
doctorate in religious studies while incarcerated, is active in peer
counseling and has a near-spotless prison record. His last disciplinary
write-up was in 1980. (Associated Press)

By Paige St. John

Manson family member Bruce Davis, 71, imprisoned for his role in the 1969 slaying of two men, is denied parole.

Gov.
Jerry Brown's decision to deny freedom to a Manson family cult member
who passed muster with a state parole board follows a familiar path.

The
governor on Friday reversed a parole board's March decision that there
would be no danger to the public in releasing Bruce Davis, convicted of
two murders as well as conspiracy to commit murder. He was not directly
involved in the Tate-LaBianca slayings that
terrified Los Angeles residents in 1969.

Brown, in his decision, noted the barbaric nature of the murders Davis took part in.

"The
exceptional brutality of these crimes and the terror the Manson family
inflicted on the Los Angeles community 45 years ago still resonate,"
Brown said in his decision, released Friday evening.

"These crimes
represent that "rare circumstance" in which the aggravated nature of the
crimes alone is sufficient to deny parole."

The governor said
Davis' continuing attempts to portray himself as a "passive bystander"
in the murders also made him unsuitable for parole.

Davis
had bragged about murdering and dismembering one of the victims, then
evaded capture for more than a year in the desert with other cult
members, the governor noted.

"These are not the actions of a distraught and reluctant participant," Brown said in his decision.

For
the third time, Davis, 71, had been recommended for release from a life
sentence for crimes committed in 1969. Brown reversed his parole grant
in 2012, pressing Davis to release more details of the Manson cult's
crimes.

Brown
has an unmatched record in allowing parole grants to stand for those
serving life sentences, but he has reversed the board in the most
notorious cases. Currently on his desk is a controversial parole
recommendation for Jesus Cecena, who killed a San Diego police officer
in 1978.

Davis admits
his role in killing musician Gary Hinman, an acquaintance of cult
members who was held captive in his home, beaten and eventually killed
in a failed attempt by the cult in July 1969 to extort money. At one
point, Davis held a gun on Hinman while Manson sliced the man’s ear. He
also drove away in Hinman's car from the house where the man was held
for three days.

In a 2012 hearing, Davis also admitted
participating in the group's August 1969 attack on Donald “Shorty” Shea,
a stuntman and hand at the ranch where the Manson cult was living and
whom Charles Manson had accused of being a police informant.
The
prospect of publicity over the release of a participant in the darkly
iconic slayings has been acknowledged by parole commissioners and Davis
himself. In March, he included in his post-prison plans an offer to stay
elsewhere if there was opposition to his return to Los Angeles.

“I’ve
known people that said we don’t want you here,” he said in March, “so I
said if there’s any sort of objection, I would be glad to go to San
Francisco.”

FRIENDS

"Charlie Manson is a five foot seven schizophrenic, who if it weren't for the murder of Sharon Tate, would never be known or discussed. And I'm not saying he isn't funny and entertaining. I'm saying he's a dime a dozen criminal-class punk, who had the good fortune of running into some middle class pseudo-revolutionary white girls." -- Tom G

"The simple and undeniable truth, is that Charlie and the gang were/are the biggest idiots, morons and imbeciles on the planet." -- Leary7

"Them fucking fruitcakes could not pour piss out of a boot, with the bottom written on it."--Harold True